Railway signaling system.



O. W. SGHLAG, H. H. BURDORP & E. H. SGHLAG.

RAILWAY SIGNALING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 21,1911.

Patented. Jan. 19, 1915.

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RAILWAY SIGNALING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED APR.21,1911.

Patented Jan. 19, 1915.

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RAILWAY SIGNAMNG 'S'YQTEM.

Specification of Letters retest.

' Patented J an. 1 9, 1%15.

Ap licants filed April 2-1, 1911. semi No. 828 689.

railway signaling systems.

The leading feature of my invention consists in providing a-simple, effective, and inexpensive device of the character described which consists of suitable electrically con trolled mechanism for electrically communieating to a signal station the fact that a track is defective, or that a' wash-out or bridge wreck or any other calamity has happened along any track.

With the above and other objects in view our invention consists in the combination, arrangement, and details of construction disclosed in the drawings andspecification,

and then more specifically pointed outin the present claim.

In the drawings wherein similar reference characters designate similar parts :Figure 1 is a top plan view of a railroad crossing equipped with that part of the system relating thereto. Fig. 2 is a perspective view showin a wrecked bridge and disrupted track clrcuit. Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a track washed out and a disrupted track circuit. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view through one pair of spring jacks and plugs employed in the system, and Fig. 5 is a sectional view of one of the jacks showing the dummy plug used in connection therewith at the end of a train or at the end of a line of rails.

Referring to the drawings by numerals there is disclosed the details of construction of our invention. In carrying out our railway system into practice we employ what may be termed a main circuit. The main circuit of the system is preferably normally open and includes a conductor 10 arranged alongside of one of the lines of rails of the trackway and suitably spaced apart therefrom and supported in any suitable manner. The other side of this same circuit is formed of one of the lines of rails of the track as the line 5, and leading from the conductor 10 and the line of rails 5 are lead wires 11 and 12 respectively terminating in a signal house S conveniently located with respect to the track way and equipped with suitable signals and signaling instruments, such, for example as telephones, telegraph iiistruments and the like. I

In order to bridge the conductors 5 and 10' of the mam circuit and out the line of rail into said circuit and especially when a rail is dislocated or a washout or bridge wreckoccurs so that the main circuit to the signal station may be closed by way of the conduit tors 10 and 5, and the fact of this calamity thereby communicated, the meeting ends of the rails forming the lines 5 and 6 are equipped with devices which, in the normal runnmg condition of the track maintain an open'circuit while when a rupture or defect occurs so that the rail is dislocated such circuit is bridged across the rupture.

To this end, we employ, in the resent instance-, pa1rs of spring jacks an plugs co: operative therewith. to normally maintain an open circuit. These jacks and .plugs are more especially illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 wherein each jack and plug is shown as including a body 14 formed with a socket 15 in which are located the jack springs 16. Each body 14 has passed therethrough adj acent to the socket 15 therein, a shank 17 one end of which is projected outwardly of the body and carries a number of balls 18, the latter being constructed of insulating material and appropriately spaced apart upon the shank and fastened thereto in any suitable manner or by any well known means. In the present instance each shank is provided with two pairs of contacting springs one spring of one pair being electrically con nected to a spring of the other pair by means of a strip 19, while the main springs of the pairs are electrically connected to the respective shanks 17 of the plugs and to the body 14, respectively. Thus, it will be seen that when the individual jack and plug of the pairs are assembled, the plug carried by the body of one jack will hold the springs of the adjacent jack spaced apart and out of contact. The electrically connected contact spring of one jack and the free end of the shank 17 of the other jack of the respective pairs are equipped with suitable binding posts to which are fastened conductors 20 and 21 terminally connected to the conductor 10 of the main circuit and forming a hypath for the current. The shank 17 of the plug of the first named jack and the strip 19 on the second named ack are electrically connected through the respective rails of the line 5 at the opposite sides of the joint of said rails. At the ends of the line of rails, the springs of the signal jacks areheld in spacedapart relation by means of a dumm plug 22 which may be constructed of woo rubber, or any other suitable insulating material.

To carry out the purposes of our invention it is not necessary to provide both of the jacks 14 with the spring arrangement shown although the same has been illustrated as they control two circuits which are independent of each other one of the circuits described hereinafter operating the alarm in the signal station and the other circuit adapted to operate an alarm in the train which will not herein be described. There-. fore the wire 21 may also be dispensed with as forming no part of our present invention.

The mode of operation of my invention Will be as follows. Should any of the rails be dislocated or moved relatively to the adjacent rails, the plug will be moved out of engagement with the jack springs whereby the main circuit will be bridged and closed to the signal station. From Figs. 4 and 5'. it will have been seen that each of the plugs'is substantially provided with wedge shapek members arranged'to enter the socketed portions of the plug to separate the spring contacts, said wedge shaped members taking the form of a plurality of balls which are mount ed upon the projecting portion of each.

shank, and said'balls decrease in diameter toward the extremities of said shanks. The spring contactswhich are arranged in each socketed portion andwhich form separable ball receiving pockets, may thus becaused to contact when the plugs are disengaged, or

- to be separated when the balls of each shank are arranged to enter the adjacent socketed portion to engage the pockets and to separate said contacts. Therefore, when the rails shall have been separated, and the balls shall have been disengaged from the spring con- 1 tacts mounted in said plug, the relative position of the parts of each spring contact will be clearly illustrated in Fig. 5 and there will battery in the signal station to the conductorlO, thence to wire 20 and thence said current will flow to one of the closed spring jacks 16, and from the latter to the rail 5, and from the rail 5 the current will flow through the ,wire 11 back to. the battery thereby closing the circuit and operating the alarm. a

Numerous modifications maybe resorted to in practice without departing in princi 1e from the details of construction herein '8- closed.

. -We claim In combination with the rails of a track, a line wire disposed alongside one line of said rails, a pair of jacks connected to each rail of said line of rails at one'end of the rail joint, a shank carried by each jack, a plurality of spherical contact separating members mounted on each shank and projecting from either socket member, a plurality of normally interengaged contacts mounted in each jackto be separated when said spherical members are inserted,- thereinto a battery, aywir'e leading from one side.

of said battery to one of said: rails, a wire leading. from theiopposite side. of said but:

rail leadin to" said batterywhereby a cir-.

cuit is esta lishedwhen sald' operatlveeoned. W. SCHLAG. HEN-RY H. BITRDORF. SCHLAG.

tacts are intereiga S \Vitnesses:

MoRRIs JosEPH, v HYMAN L. BRODY. 

